Tuesday, February 27, 2018

While churches certainly have a right to contest the proposed Israeli legislation, they should be above over-the-top Holocaust allusions and hyperbolic allegations of discrimination and racism.

by Amanda Achtman
Source: The Federalist
A sign affixed to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem reads: “Enough is Enough: Stop the Persecution of Churches.” The church at the site where Jesus is believed to have been crucified, buried, and resurrected is now temporarily closed. This protest is not against the displacement and extermination of Christians throughout the Middle East but a stunt by the Christian churches responsible for the site in protest against Israeli legislation and a new city tax policy.

Just what are the “municipal threats” and what is the “discrimination”? Despite the firestorm of media attention over the weekend, the technicalities and nuances remain convoluted. Reportedly, the main issues include: requiring church businesses to pay taxes; placing liens on church accounts until debts are paid; and expropriating lands churches sell to private buyers.

In an inflammatory statement just under 400 words, the church leaders refer to the legislation and tax policies three times as a “systematic campaign” and once as a “systematic attack” against churches and Christians in the Holy Land. The trio states: “Recently, this systematic and offensive campaign has reached an unprecedented level as the Jerusalem municipality issued scandalous collection notices and orders of seizure of Church assets, properties and bank accounts for alleged debts of punitive municipal taxes.”

Religious Activity Is Exempt, Commercial Activity Is Not

Nir Barkat, the mayor of Jerusalem, explained, “The Church of the Holy Sepulcher and prayer houses of all churches are exempt from municipal taxes; there is no change in this and it will continue. But does it make sense to anyone that commercial areas like hotels, halls, and businesses should be exempt from municipal taxes only because they are owned by churches?” Sounds like a reasonable point.

What does not, however, seem reasonable is that the church leaders’ statement hyperbolizes, “The greatest victims in this are those impoverished families who will go without food and housing, as well as the children who will be unable to attend school.” How the proposed tax on church revenue will lead to famine and homelessness and deprive children of education remains unclear.

The Christian leaders deem the bill “discriminatory and racist,” targeting “solely the properties of the Christian community in the Holy Land.” This makes no sense. How is the bill “discriminatory and racist” against Christianity, which is universal and not racial? Is it “racist” against Arabs? Armenians? Greeks? Italians? Filipinos? North Americans?

The bill, moreover, “would make the expropriation of the lands of churches possible,” according to the Christian leaders. This is incorrect. As reported by Haaretz, the bill proposed by Knesset Member Rachel Azaria would not endanger church property, but aims at protecting Jerusalem residents whose homes are located on lands churches have previously owned, in the event that the churches would sell these lands to private real estate companies.

Just when it seems unlikely the exaggeration can go further, the church leaders allude to Nazism with this ominous reference: “This reminds us all of laws of a similar nature which were enacted against the Jews during dark periods in Europe.” While churches certainly have a right to contest the proposed Israeli legislation, we should be above inflammatory accusations, over-the-top Holocaust allusions, and hyperbolic allegations of discrimination and racism.

Business Taxes Are Not Discrimination

Property rights can be disputed and negotiated, even in the Middle East, where a plurality of factors including religion, history, and geography add to the drama. This tumultuous context in mind, we come to the crux of the matter: There is real persecution in the Middle East and municipal taxes are not it.

It would have been one thing for church authorities to close the Church of the Holy Sepulcher to raise awareness about the real persecuted church, particularly during this season of Lent. It would have been one thing to take this drastic gesture in a solemn act of solidarity with the Christians who are chased out of their ancestral homelands by Islamists in the conflict-ridden countries of Iraq and Syria, or with the endangered Christian community living precariously under the rule of Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

But no. It is easy to tack up posters or to light up the Colosseum in red. It is hard to take real action concerning the persecution of Christians in the Middle East. Fighting Israel over tax policies instead of jihadists over terrorism reminds me of campus feminists who are up in arms over sex-neutral language because that is so much easier than worrying about an Islamist regime in Iran arresting women for removing their hijabs.

Insisting that church businesses pay municipal taxes is hardly persecution. There are many serious cases of actual, contemporary persecution, and if we misapply the term, we may find we have no adequate words left for today’s truest Christian martyrs.

Deepening the Brotherhood between Christians and Israel

Ultimately, closing the Church of the Holy Sepulcher hurts Christian pilgrims more than it does Israelis. It’s the most important Christian holy site in the world, and the most visited site by Christian pilgrims in Israel. They are already experiencing disappointment because of its closure.

When Pope John Paul II made a pilgrimage to Israel in March 2000, he placed a prayer in the Western Wall. In it, he prayed that Christians would “commit ourselves to genuine brotherhood with the people of the Covenant.”

In their inflammatorily expressed zeal to preserve preferential financial arrangements, these church leaders may be harming a relationship that is good for them and Christians across the world. How can we aspire not only to resolve disputes and tensions, but to truly deepen this genuine brotherhood? Perhaps one way is for Christians to think creatively about how we can express gratitude for Israel’s legal protection for all faiths and preservation of access to religious sites important to people of many religions.

Perhaps Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land could first visit Yad Vashem and Mount Herzl before they venture to trace Jesus’ footsteps, to appreciate how the suffering and sacrifices of the Jewish people contributed to the heroic founding of the modern state of Israel that preserves Christian access to sacred sites. In contrast with its neighbors, Israel is the Middle East’s only liberal democracy, and the only place Christians enjoy freedom from religious persecution. That’s ultimately far more important than preferential tax breaks for church-owned businesses.

Amanda Achtman studied political science in her hometown of Calgary, Alberta in Canada. She recently completed an MA in John Paul II Philosophical Studies at the Catholic University of Lublin in Poland and has participated in programs hosted by: the Acton Institute, the Tertio Millennio Seminar on the Free Society, the Hildebrand Project, and the Philos Project.

Sunday, December 13, 2015

The Clarion Project's new film, "By the Numbers" is an honest and open discussion about Muslim opinions and demographics. Narrated by Raheel Raza, president of Muslims Facing Tomorrow, this short film is about the acceptance that radical Islam is a bigger problem than most politically correct governments and individuals are ready to admit.

The film addresses the questions: Is ISIS, the Islamic State, trying to penetrate the US with the refugee influx? Are Muslims radicalised on U.S. soil? Are organizations such as CAIR, who purport to represent American Muslims, accepting and liberal or radicalized with links to terror organizations?

"By the Numbers" is an important film for our day and certainly worth a watch.

Sunday, November 29, 2015

A 15-year-old secular Israeli boy named Natan had a near death experience on Monday, September 28, 2015 and returned to life describing Biblical prophecies about the End of Days.

In a video posted on YouTube, Natan is shown speaking to an Orthodox Jewish audience in a synagogue in Israel, just days after his near death experience. He relates his understanding of what was revealed to him in the next world during the 15 minutes that he was pronounced clinically dead.

Rabbi Rami Levy, who sits beside Natan and helps the teen tell his story, claims that Natan did not study in a Jewish religious school and did not learn the things he spoke about from the Bible. Levy himself was raised in a secular, anti-religious Israeli family. In 1982, while performing reserve duty in the Israeli army, he survived the Lebanon War through a miracle of Divine intervention. Levy subsequently became religious and was eventually ordained as a rabbi.

Natan’s near death experience happened on the first night of this past Sukkot, which was also the night of the final Blood Moon. At the home of his uncle, where he went to visit for the holiday, Natan began feeling unwell. He described suddenly shivering and felt cold in his arms and legs. Natan decided to go and rest and, in those moments, felt his soul exit his body through his nose.

Among the various spiritual messages experienced by Natan, which can be heard beginning at the 35 minute mark of the video, the young boy speaks about the messiah standing on the Mount of Olives and determining who is worthy to be saved. Natan describes this future scene saying that “the mountain simply opens…it splits in two,” though not by earthquake and not by atomic bomb. This vision matches a prophecy in Zechariah that the Mount of Olives, located just east of the Old City of Jerusalem, will split and create a valley.

And on that day His feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem from the east. And the Mount of Olives shall split in the midst thereof-toward the east and toward the west-a very great valley. And half the mountain shall move to the north, and half of it to the south. (Zechariah 14:4)

In describing the qualities of the messiah, Natan said, “The Mashiach (messiah) is first of all someone who can’t sin. Someone who repented. Who didn’t commit any transgressions. It can’t be that the Mashiach is someone who committed transgressions. Now it can be someone who we actually know very well. Lots and lots of people know him, according to what I understood. But everyone will be very, very surprised that he is of all people the Mashiach.”

Just before the 36 minute mark, Natan claims that the messiah will kill Gog, the leader of the nation of Magog, who will be a critical player in the final war of Gog and Magog and will bury him in Israel. This claim is consistent with a prophecy in Ezekiel that Gog will be buried in Israel.

And it shall come to pass on that day that I will give Gog a place there as a grave in Israel, the valley of them who pass along the east side of the sea, and it will then stop those who pass along. And there shall they bury Gog and all his hordes, and they shall call it the Valley of Hamon Gog. (Ezekiel 39:11)

Toward the end of the portion of the video, Natan describes the power of the Messiah to discern a person’s holiness. “I also saw that the moment Har haZeitim (Mount of Olives) splits into two, then the Mashiach will stand at the entrance, but he won’t…he won’t see who is religious, who has a beard and who a person is. What he will see is – he sees according to a person’s holiness, he will smell each person, he will smell if someone has holiness, if he is pure, if he did mitzvot (God’s commandments), if he performed acts of kindness. To see if he really has true fear of Heaven and not just fear of punishment, and things like that.”

The idea that the messiah will be able to discern the righteousness of a person based on something other than physical appearance is reflected in a prophecy from Isaiah that describes the gifts of the messiah, including the ability to judge without relying on what his eyes see or what his ears hear.

And he shall be animated by the fear of the Lord, and neither with the sight of his eyes shall he judge, nor with the hearing of his ears shall he chastise. (Isaiah 11:-3)

The release of the video has caused two types of major reactions – amazement mixed with fear or incredulity and denial. Susan Constantine is a world renowned body language expert specializing in deception detection. She has appeared as an expert on television and radio shows and in print publications in the US and abroad over 1,000 times. She reviewed the video at the request of a client.

Although she is not an expert in the Jewish content of Natan’s testimony, Constantine verified the credibility of Natan’s presentation. In a statement she provided to Breaking Israel News, Constantine asserted, “I have reviewed the entire video and it is my professional opinion the boy Natan truthfully believes he experienced a visitation in heaven and was not being deceptive.”

The Hebrew video that was first released in early October is nearly two hours long. A partial version with English subtitles was released earlier this month.

The following is the partial video (39 minutes) with English subtitles. Fast forward to 27:30 for Natan's stunning description of the Messiah, the coming war of Gog, and his identification of Gog.